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I wish I could take about a week to give business people an introduction to Green business practices. Environmentalism has become an immense diversity of issues, and even scaling down to the parts that apply to business leaves enough information to fill a truckload of books. Even the dedicated environmental professional will need to spend a great deal of time to master the concepts that apply to business.

Add to that the challenges and demands of running a business, and it is easy to understand why taking a business Green is frankly beyond the resources of most businesses. It is a practical matter of necessity. The needful chores and obligations of business are back breaking. How can you fit an elephant of environmental challenges into a coffee cup of available time? That is why most businesses are forced into a token form of environmental contributions. The solution is not squeezing another load of duties onto an overworked staff.

The smart answer is that the Green transition of a business is best accomplished by bringing on a Green consultant as the outsourced expert that brings a carefully crafty plan to move the business to a Green operation. This professional can make sense of a very confusing subject by stepping the business through the best ideas for that company. Businesses outsource a variety of tasks rather than trying to pay for an internal staff member that will cost a great deal more in salary, benefits, and health care. For a fixed price, a Green consultant will provide an year-long process that will move the business toward a successful GCI Green Building certification.

Other programs can make the Greening process far more costly, complex, and over-reaching. Frankly, why are bike racks and proximity to public transportation part of the Green business formula. While they may be good ideas and help in the greater world issues, they do little to improve the health and operation of the business and its employees. Are Green roofs the singular “Best Idea” for each and every business? If you listened to some narrow-thinking advisers, it would seem so.

In fact, there are hundreds of ideas (small and sizable) that may be applied to a business, and we know that no two Green plans are exactly alike. The businesses differ in their practice, budget, and geography. It is also important to understand that Going Green is a progressive effort that cannot be accomplished in a once-forever approach. New innovations, new revelations, and new ideas are emerging month by month. The Green consultant is therefore the Ad Hoc expert bringing the best Green ideas to the table for consideration.

The last concern for Green business transition is the cost of the changes required. To be honest, getting some Green certification can be a $25,000 entry fee and a $250,000+ ultimate investment. There are elite and pretentious services that ask for more exorbitant fees to take your business Green. However, it is also very possible to take your company Green for a few thousand dollars. Spread the cost over a year, and the process becomes affordable and less intrusive.

To find out how earn your Green Consultant certification, visit the Green Business League website. Courses are offered in several major cities in four-day sessions. These classes are powerful and part of a national network of Green consultants. Check out the curriculum and consider if you are ready to start one of the most innovative businesses in the country.

Ready to start a Green program in your business? Check with our team to host a Green Awareness seminar, or to install a Green Management program that will earn your business the coveted GCI Green Building certification.

Return on Investment – RoI – is a vital factor in most sizable purchasing decisions within most companies. Replacement investment decisions are relatively straightforward. You’ll know enough about the current item’s downtime compared with how it used to be to decide how long it will take to get your money back in running savings should you decide to replace it. When it comes to buying services, however, it is not so easy to calculate the RoI. And nowhere is it harder than for buying a professionally facilitated team building event. You can’t weigh it and, most of the time, you can’t be sure if something positive happened after the event because of what you did on the day or whether it would have happened anyway. In part, it is a leap of faith.

Only in part though. There are some outputs from such a session that you can measure. Of course, there’s always the bottom line itself, whatever that is for you in your organisation. But nothing should be left that long to check that it is working and instead you can usually find something to measure along the way that gives an indicator of how things are going and whether they are going in the right direction.

For example, a front line, customer-facing team might be ultimately measured on overall sales but can also be measured on the number of people seen per head per day or the number of calls dealt with. A production team might be ultimately measured on the number of product pallets manufactured but can also be measured via a staff survey that judges employee mood – something that always has an impact of team effectiveness.

Team away days can follow the same kind of line. How many smiling faces can be counted at the ens is one thing you can measure, but that is no indication of how the event has benefited team effectiveness. But there are indicators that can be used for such things. Again, staff surveys are an option, especially if they are targeted at how efficient the team views itself. Our own team effectiveness report (available online and completely without charge) has a number of different measures that will not only show if the team is improving but also in what areas.

Ideally, though, there will be well-defined goals that you will set for any team building event and most of these are capable of being turned into a measure of some kind. By way of an example, let’s say that one of those goals was to improve the feeling of ownership within the team for its own achievements. Hopefully as part of the action plan that the team will leave with you will have something written down along the lines of “produce weekly bar chart of…” something or other that is meaningful to the group. Then your measure can simply be counting the number of times the chart is actually produced and, perhaps, also count the number of times it is viewed.

To summarise, then. You can measure the RoI for team building activities. With a bit of creativity, you can find team outputs that are measurable and help you determine the value for money spent on any team away day.

Opting to start a home based business requires a lot of thought and preparation, and if equipped with all the right knowledge it could be the ideal working situation for you. Affiliate marketing is a popular buzz word in online business these days, even though it has been around for quite some time. It provides entrepreneurs with a unique and longstanding career opportunity that has a lot of flex and can become extremely well paying.

Affiliate marketing can provide the perfect environment for successful home based business, provided you do your research properly and are aware of all the ins and outs before you commence.

One of the main advantages of entering into starting a business in affiliate marketing is that there are so many affiliate programs to choose from. The topics and markets spread so far and wide that the chance of you finding a marketable item or program that you are interested in is huge. Being passionate about your work bleeds its influence into your business and possibly even promotes sales and further revenue for you, so it is a good idea to go with something that interests you.

You could even dedicate yourself to the campaigning of more than one affiliate marketing product. This is especially beneficial if the products compliment each other creating a natural spin off from one to the next.

A typical example of affiliate marketing programs is that pay large percentages of commission of up to 40%, sometimes more, which can result in a massive return if you play your cards right. There is no real point in investing in programs that offer lower percentages because ultimately you are going to be putting in the same amount of work and effort for less pay back. Being selective about your affiliate marketing programs is essential to the running of a successful home based business.

Owning a home based business has its advantages and disadvantages, the main advantage being that you are your own boss. You get to decide when to start work and when to finish, and can commit yourself whole heartedly to your projects knowing that all profits go directly into your pocket. If you are a single mother or parent that needs to devote equal time to children and work, then an affiliate marketing business run from the comfort of your home is ideal.

However, on the con side of any home based business is the fact that you have to motivate yourself to work. There is no big bad boss hanging over your shoulders asking you where the figures are for last week. Being dedicated to duty is the only way you will be able to pursue a healthy and successful business from home, in affiliate marketing or any other avenue of home based business.

A comprehensive project such as starting a business in affiliate marketing requires many ingredients to make the mix perfect. But if you manage to get all items in place and in full working order then you are certain to enjoy the benefits of a successful home based business.